LOL, my curiosity is getting the best of me. What does that mean?
Zhirinovsky's Russian Empire
- Thread starter Pellegrino
- Start date
LOL, my curiosity is getting the best of me. What does that mean?
Thank you!
Thank you! This is turning into quite a close race and there are already 245 votes cast (last year there were only 178 total)! I really appreciate the support and the votes, and with such a tough field I am humbled that I am receiving so much support from everyone and that this TL is running neck and neck with such great TL's as Linkwerk's Katanga and LHB's Iran Contra
Great question Massa!
I actually forgot all about the '94 earthquake (I hat put some notes down on it when I first started this TL but needless to say I have a lot of things going at once and it was lost in the shuffle). After thinking about it I do have an idea about how the earthquake will play into this TL now, and how sanctions and forced capitalism might be factored in once the earthquake hits...
Yes and no. We saw up to this point a lot of instability in the UIS, which is not far from the truth in OTL. 1991-1993 saw Russia undergo some radical changes and a roller coaster ride from Communism to capitalism to near civil war. This TL has an even more extreme roller coaster ride, but just as in OTL, things do start to calm down. Zhirinovsky is now firmly entrenched (at least until 1996) and the focus is less how to take over the country, but how to deal with the Georgians and Chechens and others.
But at the same time, now we have a Zhirinovsky presidency in which he has eliminated his major rivals and after two straight violent crackdowns (1992 and 1994) few will be so bold as to challenge until the '96 elections.
we still don't know who really controls the military, but if Zhirinovsky does, then yes, he controls the nukes.
Thank you!
And yes, Vlad will head a nominally democratic country with clear totalitarian tendencies. But it still holds election in 1996, so despite Zhirinovsky's clear fascist bent, the country won't turn into Saddam's Iraq per say. Thank it a great quote! I may just have to work that into the TL! Thanks!
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
It is what the Japanese would expect in the Kurile Islands dispute.
In Russian (the names of the Kurile Islands): Iturup, Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan.
In Japanese (the names of the Kurile Islands): Etorofu, Kunashiri, Habomai and Shikotan.
In Russian (the names of the Kurile Islands): Iturup, Kunashir, Habomai, Shikotan.
In Japanese (the names of the Kurile Islands): Etorofu, Kunashiri, Habomai and Shikotan.
You know, this has given me a very interesting idea. Thanks MarshalBraginsky!
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Zavidiya has become my favorite guy ITTL because he's the only who can actually whip Zhirinovsky into obedience. Here's an example:
"Why the hell would you actually give out that despicable salute in the first place? Do you even know your country's history? That salute represents the fascist invaders who entered our Motherland-oh wait, I forgot."
Burbulis screaming his head off at Milosevic was also one of my favorite parts of the TL, though maybe if Burbulis can also lose his temper at Zhirinovsky for some odd reason, that would have been comical.
"Why the hell would you actually give out that despicable salute in the first place? Do you even know your country's history? That salute represents the fascist invaders who entered our Motherland-oh wait, I forgot."
Burbulis screaming his head off at Milosevic was also one of my favorite parts of the TL, though maybe if Burbulis can also lose his temper at Zhirinovsky for some odd reason, that would have been comical.
I have few questions about sport ITTL.
Will UIS participate in 1992, 1996 and 2000 olympics? Russian "White Revolution" occur almost in that same time that Olimpic Games in Barcelona, so I think even if west want excluded UDR team it will be too late for it. Secondly, summer olimpics opening will be on 25 july, before the embassy crisis, so new Russian revolution didnt change into nightmare in eyes of many westerners yet. Besides, OTL in 2012 even Syria splited by civil war can participate in Olimpics so...
Maybe in 1992 some UIS sportsmans will try seek asylum in Spain?
The question is Atlanta and Sydney. Many western nations dont recognize UIS, so it sport team may be boycoted. I am curious about it. TTL there will be sport rivalisations between UIS and USA.
About football , I think every UIS nation will have they own football team, just like in case of UK. So one UIS olympic team, and separete Russianm Ukrainian Bellarusan etc. However, there will be certainly some problems with that. UIS Republic of Serbian Kraina football team might be too hard to accept...
Will UIS participate in 1992, 1996 and 2000 olympics? Russian "White Revolution" occur almost in that same time that Olimpic Games in Barcelona, so I think even if west want excluded UDR team it will be too late for it. Secondly, summer olimpics opening will be on 25 july, before the embassy crisis, so new Russian revolution didnt change into nightmare in eyes of many westerners yet. Besides, OTL in 2012 even Syria splited by civil war can participate in Olimpics so...
Maybe in 1992 some UIS sportsmans will try seek asylum in Spain?
The question is Atlanta and Sydney. Many western nations dont recognize UIS, so it sport team may be boycoted. I am curious about it. TTL there will be sport rivalisations between UIS and USA.
About football , I think every UIS nation will have they own football team, just like in case of UK. So one UIS olympic team, and separete Russianm Ukrainian Bellarusan etc. However, there will be certainly some problems with that. UIS Republic of Serbian Kraina football team might be too hard to accept...
PART FIFTY TWO: THE ACCIDENTAL CAPITALIST
PART FIFTY TWO: THE ACCIDENTAL CAPITALIST
PART FIFTY TWO: THE ACCIDENTAL CAPITALIST
Some new names and places in this update:
Kunashir Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunashir_Island
An idea where Paltusovo is:
http://psyandr.narod.ru/Earth/Sakhalin.htm
Former South Korean president Kim Yong Sam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Young-sam
Some information on Gennadi Osipovich
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/09/world/ex-soviet-pilot-still-insists-kal-007-was-spying.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
KAL 007:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007
The Far Eastern Military District:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_East_Military_District
Shari, Hokkaido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shari,_Hokkaido
60 Minutes on CBS News - “The Madman of Moscow ?” from March 13, 1994
Portions of a Mike Wallace interview with Valentin Pavlov, former Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.
Courtesy of CBS
Mike Wallace: Mr. Pavlov, your trial for treason was one of over a hundred to take place in Moscow in the first half of 1994, and it was widely seen by many in the West as a fair and transparent trial. Yet you, and many communists, called the almost endless coverage of your trial ‘a magicians trick’. Would you care to elaborate?
Valentin Pavlov: Yes. The western media loved covering my trial. The image of a former prime minister of the Soviet Union being tried in Moscow for being a communist was too much to resist. The Liberal Democrats saw this as an opportunity to fool the west, to show them how much things had changed. When the court ruled that I was only guilty of “tampering with evidence” and sentenced me to six years in prison many in the west called it a very progressive step for the new UIS. It even convinced some countries to ease up on sanctions. But while my trial was going on, in other courtrooms across Russia little known communists were going through show trials with no lawyers and no cameras. They were sent to exile in the Far East or worse. I suppose I was lucky in that sense. Vladimir Zhirinovsky had some use for me so I didn’t end up like my comrades. But I was nothing more that a rabbit that was pulled out of a magicians hat. Everyone was fixated on me, but they never even noticed what the other hand was doing.
Mike Wallace: So you think that Vladimir Zhirinovsky was using your trial as some sort of ploy to fool the West? Isn’t that unlikely considering how unpopular he was with the Americans and with NATO?
Valentin Pavlov: Yes, but the West goes far beyond Western Europe and North America. In the geopolitical sense it actually goes all the way across the Pacific. You notice that my trial was followed by that of Vladimir Kryuchkov, a fellow member of the GKChP? But he wasn’t tried for his role in the failed coup. No, that was not going to be interesting enough. It was old news, and nobody in Asia cared about that anymore. But there was so much more they could put him on trial for, after all he was the former chairman of the KGB. So they tried him for something that would capture headlines in every newspaper in Seoul and Tokyo. They tried him for Korean Air Flight 007.
Trial of former KGB Chairman continues as former pilot testifies
By William Park
The Los Angeles Times
May 12, 1994
Former Soviet Pilot Genadi Osipovich testified today
(Moscow, UIS) – In front of a packed courtroom, former Soviet pilot Genadi Osipovich broke down in tears as he described receiving orders from ground control to “destroy the target.”
“I told ground control that there were flashing lights on the plane,” Osipovich said as his voice cracked, “that could only mean one thing: it was a civilian plane.”
Many of the nearly five hundred foreigners, almost all Korean, who came to Moscow to learn the truth about what happened to their family members gasped at the revelation.
Osipovich was one of the prosecution’s star witnesses against Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former KGB Chairman in 1983 who is being tried for dereliction of duty, tampering with evidence, and criminal negligent homicide for his role in the incident. The prosecution alleged that Kryuchkov masterminded a cover-up in which he ordered Colonel Osipovich to falsify evidence (by taping Colonel Osipovich saying that there were no lights flashing on the plane when he made contact with it). He is also charged with ordering the plane to be shot down, a move that pushed the world perilously close to nuclear war. However, the defense has repeatedly ridiculed the charges, arguing that as head of the KGB he had no direct role in the decisions made by the Soviet Far East District Air Defense Forces in 1983.
“Isn’t it true that you never actually said the words ‘civilian airplane’ or ‘Boeing’ when speaking to ground control?” Defense attorney Yuri Yeltsinov asked on cross examination. “And isn’t it true that the order to shoot was not issued by the KGB, which had no jurisdiction over this incident, but by General Valeri Kamensky, commander of the Soviet Far East District Air Defense Forces?”
The defense has made no secret of its desire to discredit General Kamensky, who pleaded no contest to a lesser charge as part of a plea agreement that will see him testify against the former KGB Chairman. The Republic of South Korea has eased off UN sanctions to allow former family members to travel to Moscow for the trial, a move that has been widely criticized by the United States and Germany. However, many Koreans felt that South Korean President Kim Young-Sam had to make some concessions in regards to the UIS.
“He formed a very fragile coalition with the right wing Democratic Justice Party,” commented Kim-Duk Nam, a political consultant from Pusan. “He merged his Peaceful Democracy Party with the DJP to form the Democratic Liberal Party, and to not ease up on the UIS would have destroyed the coalition. Many conservatives in his coalition regard the UIS as a potential ally in regards to North Korea. The staunch anti-communist rhetoric coming from Moscow appeals to them. Plus there is no way any South Korean President would dare prevent the Korean Air relatives from seeking justice. It would be compared to what Kim Il-Sung is doing; using families as a political pawn. It would have been political suicide for any president to do so.”
MSNBC interview with Walter Mondale, Former U.S. Secretary of State
July 16, 2008
MSNBC: The trials of Vladimir Kryuchkov and Valentin Pavlov knocked some holes in the UN sanctions on the UIS, something that President Kerrey took a lot of heat for. Some Republicans called it ‘clear proof that Bob Kerrey was no Ronald Reagan.’ What is your take on South Korea and Japan’s decision to ease up on sanctions?
Mondale: Well, I was pretty disappointed in Japan’s decision to be honest, especially considering how the UIS was openly provoking them in regards to the Kuril Islands. But I was more understanding in regards to South Korea. We understood why President Kim did what he did. His back was against the wall there, the right wing in South Korea believed that with such anti-communist rhetoric coming out of Moscow that the UIS was poised to turn on North Korea. They wanted to encourage that, and quite frankly they could not care less about Croatia, Bosnia, and Romania. If the UIS was about to turn on North Korea the opinion in the South was that there was no way that North Korea would survive. That trumped everything else. In that regards President Kerrey did a tremendous job keeping the core parts of the sanctions in place. South Korea and Japan only eased up on sanctions, they didn’t abandon them. Besides, by the summer of 1994 it was clear that these two trials didn’t reflect a new UIS judicial system. The vast majority of trials involved defendants with no attorneys and often with no access to the evidence against them. They were sham trials, and the interesting thing is once Americans became fixated on a white Ford Bronco in downtown Los Angeles on June 17, 1994 the UIS stopped even pretending they were holding fair trials. They just started rounding up so-called communists and sending them to Kunashir.
The Accidental Capitalist: Former Communist political prisoners recount early days on Kunashir Island
Foreign Affairs (7/14/2006)
by William Hason
(Paltusovo, UIS)- Igor Shovenko doesn’t miss a beat as he switches into nearly flawless Japanese. He points out the destination on the map before bowing, in traditional Japanese fashion, to the elderly tourist as they thank him for his assistance.
“Dōitashimashite,” he replies.
I point out the irony in the incident, how he was sent to Kunashir as a young boy with his family to prevent the Japanese from over running the island.
“Everyone under the age of thirty speaks at least some Japanese,” he said with a shrug, “otherwise we have to work on the fishing boats. And nobody wants that. It is hard and dangerous work and it pays shit. It’s a lot better to be a tour guide, or if you are really lucky to get a job at Starbucks. That’s where you can really make some money. But they won’t even look at you unless you speak fluent Japanese.”
The tiny village of Paltusovo, just 16-kilometers from the Japanese island of Hokkaido, is one of the most unusual places in the former UIS. Just fifteen years ago it was a tiny fishing village of only a few hundred. Most of the local residents were trickling out of the town. The UIS was crippled with sanctions and what little income the country had was not going to the sparsely populated island in the Far East. Just one year later it became a literal gulag. Communist political prisoners found themselves dumped on the island with few provisions and no guidance from Moscow.
“My family arrived in June of 1994,” Shovenko said, “we were lucky, we arrived in the summer of ‘94. Those who were shipped off in January and February, they really had it tough.”
Early refuges were dropped off without any instruction as to where they were to sleep, or what they were to eat. Igor Shovenko and his family spent three weeks sleeping in a homemade tent that his father made out of some garbage bags he found on the beach.
“You can always spot the ones who arrived in the winter of 1994,” he added, “They often are missing toes or a finger. Frostbite devastated the early inhabitants. Hundreds froze to death as well. It was so inhumane how we were treated.”
The transformation from prison camp to the most capitalistic town in the UIS still surprises Shovenko, but he can pinpoint the day that the transformation began.
“The government was building these large apartment buildings in town,” Shovenko recalled, “They were really pushing to finish the project quickly. We heard that Vladimir Zhirinovsky promised to turn Kunashir into the ‘Gaza of the Orient’. He wanted Kunashir to be the most densely populated place in the country. But it is impossible to build on Kunashir. It is a rocky, volcanic island that is cut off from the rest of the country. Still, they were building dozens of these large 25-story apartment buildings in a town that just a year ago had only a few hundred people living in it. It was crazy. And it proved to be deadly.”
On October 4th, 1994 a devastating earthquake brought down all sixteen buildings, killing hundreds. Shovenko and his family had been slated to move into the building on October 20th.
“In hindsight we were lucky, all of us were,” Shovenko added, “the buildings were not finished and only had a few families living in them. Had the earthquake hit six months later it could have ended up killing everyone in town.”
The earthquake had the bizarre effect of changing the mindset of the residents of Paltusovo.
“My father was a lifelong communist,” he added, “but after the earthquake he really changed. He started believing in God, and he honestly believed that God was punishing us. From being exiled to this island to having nearly frozen to death to being hit with an earthquake…it really felt like we were Egyptians suffering the wrath of God for persecuting his chosen people. Had a plague of locus attacked the island the next day, I don’t think any of us would have been surprised.”
It was after the devastating earthquake that the residence of Paltusovo made a curious discovery. One that had been right in front of their noses all along: Japan was only 16-kilometers away.
“We were totally cut off from Russia,” Shovenko said, “so relief was slow in coming from them. But it was at this point that we actually started to notice how close Japan was, and how the local police and military could not care less about anyone who defected. Prior to the earthquake the only thing that kept us from trying was fear of the unknown. We grew up knowing that defectors were shot, and all we knew about the Japanese was that they sided with the Nazis in the Great Patriotic War.”
But due to Japan’s controversial decision to limit sanctions, Kunashir found itself the unlikely beneficiary of massive aid from its southern neighbor.
“Hundred of tons of rice came in from Japan,” Shovenko remembered, “as well as tough, durable tents and thick sleeping bags. Those tents and sleeping bags were a godsend. We all believed that we were going to freeze to death until we saw those Japanese tents.”
But unfortunately for the nearly 8,000 political prisoners in the town of Paltusovo, they were about to get their first taste of ‘reeducation.’
“The military police passed a ‘city ordinance’,” Shovenko said with disgust, “No camping on public property: you could only set up a tent on private property. It was an attempt to force us to abandon our principles. The funny thing is it really had the opposite effect at first. Most of the residents had not even thought about communism, they were too busy trying to stay alive. But this really electrified us. We had a meeting once we heard about this ordinance and decided to send one person to sign up with the registration office. This one person would then come back and ‘donate’ his land to the underground ‘Communist Resistance Movement.’ Then everyone could pitch their tents on this persons land.”
The plan fell apart almost immediately. A handful of die hard communists argued that it would be better to wait for the government to build new buildings and to tough it out. The suggestion earned angry rebukes.
“The tenements were called Little Armenia by those of us who survived the earthquake,” Shovenko recalled, “because they were built just like the buildings in Armenia that collapsed during the 1988 Spitak earthquake. We all knew we would be safer in a tent than in one of those buildings. These men who suggested that we tough it out had made deals with the military police and the KGB for shelter. They didn’t have to worry about freezing to death like we did.”
For Igor Shovenko’s father, it was the last straw. Realizing that Japan was a better option than a harsh winter on the island without any shelter he decided to take his chance and defect. Combing the beach for supplies he found two automobile tires which he used to fashion a small flotation device. His plan was to put his wife and two children on it and then to swim to Hokkaido while pulling them along.
“It was a stupid, stupid plan,” Shovenko said with a chuckle, “but desperation causes people to entertain the dumbest of ideas. My father had lived his entire life in Moscow and knew nothing about the ocean. He assumed that if he could walk 16-kilometers in October that he would be able to swim 16-kilometers in October. Thank God the military policeman caught him.”
The officer saw him on the beach and pulled his rifle out. For Igor Shovenko, he was certain that they were about to be arrested…or worse.
“My father dropped to his knees and hugged us as the soldier ran down the beach screaming at him,” Shovenko recalled, “his voice broke as he whispered that he loved us and kissed my forehead. I started crying right then and there. I was only eight years old, but even I understood what it meant to be caught trying to defect. I knew that my father was a dead man.”
To Igor Shovenko’s surprise, however, the soldier didn’t arrest him.
“He was screaming that it was below freezing,” he recalled, “and that my father should be ashamed of himself for putting his family in such a dangerous position. He kept screaming about the current too, and that we would have gotten pulled out to sea before we made it three meters past the shore. He was right too. He then said something that stunned us all. He said that if we wanted to go to Japan so badly we should have bought a boat!”
The passing comment stunned Igor Shovenko and his father. The elder Shovenko quickly gathered his family and returned to the makeshift camp they called home.
“All night I could see my father staring at the ocean,” Shovenko recalled, “I realized that was the night in which he stumbled into the free market. That was the night in which he became an accidental capitalist.”
The following morning the elder Shovenko went into town to speak with a local fisherman who had made plans to abandon the town.
“Most of the original locals were looking to leave once we arrived,” Shovenko added, “and the earthquake sealed the deal for them. They all wanted out.”
Before lunchtime he had made arrangements to purchase his small cabin and tiny two-person fishing boat, trading a handful of supplies and what little money he had as a down payment to the fisherman.
“They kept arguing over the interest rate,” Shovenko said with a chuckle, “neither of them knew what a fair and legitimate interest rate was. So the fisherman was asking for 250%. My father talked him down to 75% and was really was proud of himself!”
Despite the terrible interest rate, the elder Shovenko did in fact end up getting the cabin and boat at a shockingly cheap rate.
“With hyperinflation devastating the UIS, the cabin ended up costing my father about thirteen American cents,” Shovenko said with a chuckle, “although I suppose the fisherman could not care less in the end. He wanted off the island so badly he didn’t even care about the fact that he gave his cabin up for pocket change. Besides, considering he ended up in Kazakhstan I am sure he isn’t too worried about all the money he left behind.”
That night Igor and his family took to the ocean and sailed south to the small town of Shari in Hokkaido.
“My father knew nothing about boating,” Shovenko said, “but he was a man on a mission. He was going to get to Japan. But not to defect…to stock up!”
Igor Shovenko and his father arrived in Shari just after midnight and were stunned by what they saw.
“Japan is a very, very rich country,” Shovenko said with a laugh, “And I’ll be honest, we were not ready for that. We were absolutely shocked. My father was wandering around in tattered shoes that were being held together by plastic six-pack rings that he found on the beach. When he reached a small shop that was closed he saw some shoes in the window and just stared at them for at least three minutes. He never saw such beautiful shoes in his life!”
As Igor Shovenko and his father stood in front of the store staring at the window they were approached by two Japanese policemen.
“My father only knew one word in Japanese,” Shovenko said, “the word defect. He kept saying it over and over again as they took us the four of us to the police station.”
Within three hours Japanese immigration officials began filling out paperwork establishing the Shovenko family as political refugees. They would not be granted Japanese citizenship, and they would encounter massive opposition from many in Japan. But for the elder Shovenko none of that really mattered as he told his family what his plan had been all along. They would get political asylum in Japan, but he would not stay.
“The Japanese were worried about a flood of political refugees coming in and they really discouraged us from staying in the weeks after that,” Shovenko said, “they kept asking us if we wanted to go to America or to France. But my father was insistent. He wanted to live in Shari. He wanted us to stay right where we were because he had no intention of staying in Japan. He wanted to make his fortune in Kunashir.”
As soon as he was given a small one bedroom apartment by the Japanese government Shovenko signed his children up for school in Japan. Although the Japanese government would not give the Shovenko’s citizenship, or even give the elder Shovenko a work visa, he soon began making money by selling goods to his countrymen back in Paltusovo.
“The first week he begged on the streets for some money, “Shovenko recalled, “He earned about $500 doing that. That was the last time he ever had to beg in his life.”
Purchasing hundreds of packets of instant noodles and instant miso soup, as well as a few cartons of cigarettes, Shovenko loaded his small boat and sailed back to Paltusovo. As he sailed to his cabin he discovered dozens of squatters living there.
“He had to call the police to get them out,” Shovenko recalled, “but once the police arrived they drove those people out. After all, he had all the paperwork showing that he was the owner of the cabin.”
It was quite the strange transformation for the onetime communist. He now found himself the ‘heartless landowner’ driving poor families into the street on a cold winter night.
“By chance he saw the soldier from the beach with the other military policemen,” Shovenko added, “and he joked with him and offered all the soldiers a pack of American cigarettes each. After that he wielded more power in Paltusovo than the local head of the KGB.”
Although the elder Shovenko was the first, he would not be the last. By the following summer, as the UIS was boating in thousands more, the floodgates to Shari and Nemuro in Hokkaido were kicked opened. The tiny island of Kunashir was ill equipped to fulfill Zhirinovsky’s dream of a Gaza on the Orient and most of the local authorities not only ignored the defections, but actually encouraged them. By mid-1995 it was estimated that over 50,000 Russian political refugees were living in Hokkaido.
“The Japanese really hated it,” Shovenko said with a laugh, “I love Japan and the Japanese, but damn it they are a stubborn bunch. They are terrified that somehow their country of one hundred and twenty five million is about to be overrun because there are about 200,000 Russians living there. But I suppose we had it better than the Koreans and the Filipinos living in Japan. I guess the Russians are more of a novelty item to them.”
Shovenko even believes it is for this reason that his younger brother Yuri chose not to return to Paltusovo and remains in Japan.
“He is an actor,” Shovenko said, “he does commercials and stars on sitcoms, usually playing of all things an American. He loves Tokyo and dreams about going to Hollywood someday. His dream is to someday meet Ice Cube.”
Igor Shovenko decided to return to Paltusovo to help his father run his business after he finished high school. What he saw shocked him.
“That tiny cabin my father built was now a supermarket,” Shovenko said, “And the little backwater village now looked like a real town. It had a school and a post office and even a discothèque. I couldn’t believe it changed so much in ten years.”
As relations between Japan and the UIS began to thaw after the fall of Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 2003 tourism soon became the major source of income in Paltusovo.
“You know we are so lucky that Zhirinovsky couldn’t crowd this island like he wanted,” Shovenko added, “because there are some really beautiful places here. The natural landscape here is really amazing, and it drives tourism.”
The changes in Kunashir even affected the political landscape. The island which just twelve years ago was a virtual political prison for communists now finds itself as the most right wing province of the Sakhalin Oblast.
“The Communists sent to Sakhalin thought they were the lucky ones in 1994,” Shovenko added, “but they didn’t have Japan nearby. So they still live life like we did back in 1994. But here we are strengthening ties to the west. In the elections of 1996 while Sakhalin voted overwhelmingly for the communists we supported the reformist parties. Even the Kunashiri Unity Front garnered more support than the Communist Party, and they are a political party advocating union with Japan!”
Still, the support for the Kunashiri Unity Front in 1996 may have had more to do with the one man who is still despised above all others in Paltusovo.
“I suppose that the success of the Kunashiri Unity Front had more to do with Vladimir Zhirinovsky that a serious desire to unify with Japan,” Shovenko said, “we all hate him here, and in 1996 nobody in Kunashir took the Worker’s Party seriously. Zhirinovsky turned it into a watered down Liberal Democratic Party, and we all resented those communists who didn’t get exiled. We considered them traitors. But we still wanted to vote against Vladimir Zhirinovsky. What better way to vote against Vladimir Zhirinovsky than to turn his grand plan for a Greater Russia on its face? The thought of a bunch of Russians he personally exiled to Kunashir to prevent it from unifying with Japan voting to actually do just that was just too perfect for us to resist. We couldn’t ignore that perfect opportunity to tell Vladimir Zhirinovsky to kiss our ass.”
PART FIFTY TWO: THE ACCIDENTAL CAPITALIST
Some new names and places in this update:
Kunashir Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunashir_Island
An idea where Paltusovo is:
http://psyandr.narod.ru/Earth/Sakhalin.htm
Former South Korean president Kim Yong Sam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Young-sam
Some information on Gennadi Osipovich
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/09/world/ex-soviet-pilot-still-insists-kal-007-was-spying.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
KAL 007:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007
The Far Eastern Military District:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_East_Military_District
Shari, Hokkaido
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shari,_Hokkaido
60 Minutes on CBS News - “The Madman of Moscow ?” from March 13, 1994
Portions of a Mike Wallace interview with Valentin Pavlov, former Prime Minister of the Soviet Union.
Courtesy of CBS
Mike Wallace: Mr. Pavlov, your trial for treason was one of over a hundred to take place in Moscow in the first half of 1994, and it was widely seen by many in the West as a fair and transparent trial. Yet you, and many communists, called the almost endless coverage of your trial ‘a magicians trick’. Would you care to elaborate?
Valentin Pavlov: Yes. The western media loved covering my trial. The image of a former prime minister of the Soviet Union being tried in Moscow for being a communist was too much to resist. The Liberal Democrats saw this as an opportunity to fool the west, to show them how much things had changed. When the court ruled that I was only guilty of “tampering with evidence” and sentenced me to six years in prison many in the west called it a very progressive step for the new UIS. It even convinced some countries to ease up on sanctions. But while my trial was going on, in other courtrooms across Russia little known communists were going through show trials with no lawyers and no cameras. They were sent to exile in the Far East or worse. I suppose I was lucky in that sense. Vladimir Zhirinovsky had some use for me so I didn’t end up like my comrades. But I was nothing more that a rabbit that was pulled out of a magicians hat. Everyone was fixated on me, but they never even noticed what the other hand was doing.
Mike Wallace: So you think that Vladimir Zhirinovsky was using your trial as some sort of ploy to fool the West? Isn’t that unlikely considering how unpopular he was with the Americans and with NATO?
Valentin Pavlov: Yes, but the West goes far beyond Western Europe and North America. In the geopolitical sense it actually goes all the way across the Pacific. You notice that my trial was followed by that of Vladimir Kryuchkov, a fellow member of the GKChP? But he wasn’t tried for his role in the failed coup. No, that was not going to be interesting enough. It was old news, and nobody in Asia cared about that anymore. But there was so much more they could put him on trial for, after all he was the former chairman of the KGB. So they tried him for something that would capture headlines in every newspaper in Seoul and Tokyo. They tried him for Korean Air Flight 007.
Trial of former KGB Chairman continues as former pilot testifies
By William Park
The Los Angeles Times
May 12, 1994
Former Soviet Pilot Genadi Osipovich testified today
(Moscow, UIS) – In front of a packed courtroom, former Soviet pilot Genadi Osipovich broke down in tears as he described receiving orders from ground control to “destroy the target.”
“I told ground control that there were flashing lights on the plane,” Osipovich said as his voice cracked, “that could only mean one thing: it was a civilian plane.”
Many of the nearly five hundred foreigners, almost all Korean, who came to Moscow to learn the truth about what happened to their family members gasped at the revelation.
Osipovich was one of the prosecution’s star witnesses against Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former KGB Chairman in 1983 who is being tried for dereliction of duty, tampering with evidence, and criminal negligent homicide for his role in the incident. The prosecution alleged that Kryuchkov masterminded a cover-up in which he ordered Colonel Osipovich to falsify evidence (by taping Colonel Osipovich saying that there were no lights flashing on the plane when he made contact with it). He is also charged with ordering the plane to be shot down, a move that pushed the world perilously close to nuclear war. However, the defense has repeatedly ridiculed the charges, arguing that as head of the KGB he had no direct role in the decisions made by the Soviet Far East District Air Defense Forces in 1983.
“Isn’t it true that you never actually said the words ‘civilian airplane’ or ‘Boeing’ when speaking to ground control?” Defense attorney Yuri Yeltsinov asked on cross examination. “And isn’t it true that the order to shoot was not issued by the KGB, which had no jurisdiction over this incident, but by General Valeri Kamensky, commander of the Soviet Far East District Air Defense Forces?”
The defense has made no secret of its desire to discredit General Kamensky, who pleaded no contest to a lesser charge as part of a plea agreement that will see him testify against the former KGB Chairman. The Republic of South Korea has eased off UN sanctions to allow former family members to travel to Moscow for the trial, a move that has been widely criticized by the United States and Germany. However, many Koreans felt that South Korean President Kim Young-Sam had to make some concessions in regards to the UIS.
“He formed a very fragile coalition with the right wing Democratic Justice Party,” commented Kim-Duk Nam, a political consultant from Pusan. “He merged his Peaceful Democracy Party with the DJP to form the Democratic Liberal Party, and to not ease up on the UIS would have destroyed the coalition. Many conservatives in his coalition regard the UIS as a potential ally in regards to North Korea. The staunch anti-communist rhetoric coming from Moscow appeals to them. Plus there is no way any South Korean President would dare prevent the Korean Air relatives from seeking justice. It would be compared to what Kim Il-Sung is doing; using families as a political pawn. It would have been political suicide for any president to do so.”
MSNBC interview with Walter Mondale, Former U.S. Secretary of State
July 16, 2008
MSNBC: The trials of Vladimir Kryuchkov and Valentin Pavlov knocked some holes in the UN sanctions on the UIS, something that President Kerrey took a lot of heat for. Some Republicans called it ‘clear proof that Bob Kerrey was no Ronald Reagan.’ What is your take on South Korea and Japan’s decision to ease up on sanctions?
Mondale: Well, I was pretty disappointed in Japan’s decision to be honest, especially considering how the UIS was openly provoking them in regards to the Kuril Islands. But I was more understanding in regards to South Korea. We understood why President Kim did what he did. His back was against the wall there, the right wing in South Korea believed that with such anti-communist rhetoric coming out of Moscow that the UIS was poised to turn on North Korea. They wanted to encourage that, and quite frankly they could not care less about Croatia, Bosnia, and Romania. If the UIS was about to turn on North Korea the opinion in the South was that there was no way that North Korea would survive. That trumped everything else. In that regards President Kerrey did a tremendous job keeping the core parts of the sanctions in place. South Korea and Japan only eased up on sanctions, they didn’t abandon them. Besides, by the summer of 1994 it was clear that these two trials didn’t reflect a new UIS judicial system. The vast majority of trials involved defendants with no attorneys and often with no access to the evidence against them. They were sham trials, and the interesting thing is once Americans became fixated on a white Ford Bronco in downtown Los Angeles on June 17, 1994 the UIS stopped even pretending they were holding fair trials. They just started rounding up so-called communists and sending them to Kunashir.
The Accidental Capitalist: Former Communist political prisoners recount early days on Kunashir Island
Foreign Affairs (7/14/2006)
by William Hason
(Paltusovo, UIS)- Igor Shovenko doesn’t miss a beat as he switches into nearly flawless Japanese. He points out the destination on the map before bowing, in traditional Japanese fashion, to the elderly tourist as they thank him for his assistance.
“Dōitashimashite,” he replies.
I point out the irony in the incident, how he was sent to Kunashir as a young boy with his family to prevent the Japanese from over running the island.
“Everyone under the age of thirty speaks at least some Japanese,” he said with a shrug, “otherwise we have to work on the fishing boats. And nobody wants that. It is hard and dangerous work and it pays shit. It’s a lot better to be a tour guide, or if you are really lucky to get a job at Starbucks. That’s where you can really make some money. But they won’t even look at you unless you speak fluent Japanese.”
The tiny village of Paltusovo, just 16-kilometers from the Japanese island of Hokkaido, is one of the most unusual places in the former UIS. Just fifteen years ago it was a tiny fishing village of only a few hundred. Most of the local residents were trickling out of the town. The UIS was crippled with sanctions and what little income the country had was not going to the sparsely populated island in the Far East. Just one year later it became a literal gulag. Communist political prisoners found themselves dumped on the island with few provisions and no guidance from Moscow.
“My family arrived in June of 1994,” Shovenko said, “we were lucky, we arrived in the summer of ‘94. Those who were shipped off in January and February, they really had it tough.”
Early refuges were dropped off without any instruction as to where they were to sleep, or what they were to eat. Igor Shovenko and his family spent three weeks sleeping in a homemade tent that his father made out of some garbage bags he found on the beach.
“You can always spot the ones who arrived in the winter of 1994,” he added, “They often are missing toes or a finger. Frostbite devastated the early inhabitants. Hundreds froze to death as well. It was so inhumane how we were treated.”
The transformation from prison camp to the most capitalistic town in the UIS still surprises Shovenko, but he can pinpoint the day that the transformation began.
“The government was building these large apartment buildings in town,” Shovenko recalled, “They were really pushing to finish the project quickly. We heard that Vladimir Zhirinovsky promised to turn Kunashir into the ‘Gaza of the Orient’. He wanted Kunashir to be the most densely populated place in the country. But it is impossible to build on Kunashir. It is a rocky, volcanic island that is cut off from the rest of the country. Still, they were building dozens of these large 25-story apartment buildings in a town that just a year ago had only a few hundred people living in it. It was crazy. And it proved to be deadly.”
On October 4th, 1994 a devastating earthquake brought down all sixteen buildings, killing hundreds. Shovenko and his family had been slated to move into the building on October 20th.
“In hindsight we were lucky, all of us were,” Shovenko added, “the buildings were not finished and only had a few families living in them. Had the earthquake hit six months later it could have ended up killing everyone in town.”
The earthquake had the bizarre effect of changing the mindset of the residents of Paltusovo.
“My father was a lifelong communist,” he added, “but after the earthquake he really changed. He started believing in God, and he honestly believed that God was punishing us. From being exiled to this island to having nearly frozen to death to being hit with an earthquake…it really felt like we were Egyptians suffering the wrath of God for persecuting his chosen people. Had a plague of locus attacked the island the next day, I don’t think any of us would have been surprised.”
It was after the devastating earthquake that the residence of Paltusovo made a curious discovery. One that had been right in front of their noses all along: Japan was only 16-kilometers away.
“We were totally cut off from Russia,” Shovenko said, “so relief was slow in coming from them. But it was at this point that we actually started to notice how close Japan was, and how the local police and military could not care less about anyone who defected. Prior to the earthquake the only thing that kept us from trying was fear of the unknown. We grew up knowing that defectors were shot, and all we knew about the Japanese was that they sided with the Nazis in the Great Patriotic War.”
But due to Japan’s controversial decision to limit sanctions, Kunashir found itself the unlikely beneficiary of massive aid from its southern neighbor.
“Hundred of tons of rice came in from Japan,” Shovenko remembered, “as well as tough, durable tents and thick sleeping bags. Those tents and sleeping bags were a godsend. We all believed that we were going to freeze to death until we saw those Japanese tents.”
But unfortunately for the nearly 8,000 political prisoners in the town of Paltusovo, they were about to get their first taste of ‘reeducation.’
“The military police passed a ‘city ordinance’,” Shovenko said with disgust, “No camping on public property: you could only set up a tent on private property. It was an attempt to force us to abandon our principles. The funny thing is it really had the opposite effect at first. Most of the residents had not even thought about communism, they were too busy trying to stay alive. But this really electrified us. We had a meeting once we heard about this ordinance and decided to send one person to sign up with the registration office. This one person would then come back and ‘donate’ his land to the underground ‘Communist Resistance Movement.’ Then everyone could pitch their tents on this persons land.”
The plan fell apart almost immediately. A handful of die hard communists argued that it would be better to wait for the government to build new buildings and to tough it out. The suggestion earned angry rebukes.
“The tenements were called Little Armenia by those of us who survived the earthquake,” Shovenko recalled, “because they were built just like the buildings in Armenia that collapsed during the 1988 Spitak earthquake. We all knew we would be safer in a tent than in one of those buildings. These men who suggested that we tough it out had made deals with the military police and the KGB for shelter. They didn’t have to worry about freezing to death like we did.”
For Igor Shovenko’s father, it was the last straw. Realizing that Japan was a better option than a harsh winter on the island without any shelter he decided to take his chance and defect. Combing the beach for supplies he found two automobile tires which he used to fashion a small flotation device. His plan was to put his wife and two children on it and then to swim to Hokkaido while pulling them along.
“It was a stupid, stupid plan,” Shovenko said with a chuckle, “but desperation causes people to entertain the dumbest of ideas. My father had lived his entire life in Moscow and knew nothing about the ocean. He assumed that if he could walk 16-kilometers in October that he would be able to swim 16-kilometers in October. Thank God the military policeman caught him.”
The officer saw him on the beach and pulled his rifle out. For Igor Shovenko, he was certain that they were about to be arrested…or worse.
“My father dropped to his knees and hugged us as the soldier ran down the beach screaming at him,” Shovenko recalled, “his voice broke as he whispered that he loved us and kissed my forehead. I started crying right then and there. I was only eight years old, but even I understood what it meant to be caught trying to defect. I knew that my father was a dead man.”
To Igor Shovenko’s surprise, however, the soldier didn’t arrest him.
“He was screaming that it was below freezing,” he recalled, “and that my father should be ashamed of himself for putting his family in such a dangerous position. He kept screaming about the current too, and that we would have gotten pulled out to sea before we made it three meters past the shore. He was right too. He then said something that stunned us all. He said that if we wanted to go to Japan so badly we should have bought a boat!”
The passing comment stunned Igor Shovenko and his father. The elder Shovenko quickly gathered his family and returned to the makeshift camp they called home.
“All night I could see my father staring at the ocean,” Shovenko recalled, “I realized that was the night in which he stumbled into the free market. That was the night in which he became an accidental capitalist.”
The following morning the elder Shovenko went into town to speak with a local fisherman who had made plans to abandon the town.
“Most of the original locals were looking to leave once we arrived,” Shovenko added, “and the earthquake sealed the deal for them. They all wanted out.”
Before lunchtime he had made arrangements to purchase his small cabin and tiny two-person fishing boat, trading a handful of supplies and what little money he had as a down payment to the fisherman.
“They kept arguing over the interest rate,” Shovenko said with a chuckle, “neither of them knew what a fair and legitimate interest rate was. So the fisherman was asking for 250%. My father talked him down to 75% and was really was proud of himself!”
Despite the terrible interest rate, the elder Shovenko did in fact end up getting the cabin and boat at a shockingly cheap rate.
“With hyperinflation devastating the UIS, the cabin ended up costing my father about thirteen American cents,” Shovenko said with a chuckle, “although I suppose the fisherman could not care less in the end. He wanted off the island so badly he didn’t even care about the fact that he gave his cabin up for pocket change. Besides, considering he ended up in Kazakhstan I am sure he isn’t too worried about all the money he left behind.”
That night Igor and his family took to the ocean and sailed south to the small town of Shari in Hokkaido.
“My father knew nothing about boating,” Shovenko said, “but he was a man on a mission. He was going to get to Japan. But not to defect…to stock up!”
Igor Shovenko and his father arrived in Shari just after midnight and were stunned by what they saw.
“Japan is a very, very rich country,” Shovenko said with a laugh, “And I’ll be honest, we were not ready for that. We were absolutely shocked. My father was wandering around in tattered shoes that were being held together by plastic six-pack rings that he found on the beach. When he reached a small shop that was closed he saw some shoes in the window and just stared at them for at least three minutes. He never saw such beautiful shoes in his life!”
As Igor Shovenko and his father stood in front of the store staring at the window they were approached by two Japanese policemen.
“My father only knew one word in Japanese,” Shovenko said, “the word defect. He kept saying it over and over again as they took us the four of us to the police station.”
Within three hours Japanese immigration officials began filling out paperwork establishing the Shovenko family as political refugees. They would not be granted Japanese citizenship, and they would encounter massive opposition from many in Japan. But for the elder Shovenko none of that really mattered as he told his family what his plan had been all along. They would get political asylum in Japan, but he would not stay.
“The Japanese were worried about a flood of political refugees coming in and they really discouraged us from staying in the weeks after that,” Shovenko said, “they kept asking us if we wanted to go to America or to France. But my father was insistent. He wanted to live in Shari. He wanted us to stay right where we were because he had no intention of staying in Japan. He wanted to make his fortune in Kunashir.”
As soon as he was given a small one bedroom apartment by the Japanese government Shovenko signed his children up for school in Japan. Although the Japanese government would not give the Shovenko’s citizenship, or even give the elder Shovenko a work visa, he soon began making money by selling goods to his countrymen back in Paltusovo.
“The first week he begged on the streets for some money, “Shovenko recalled, “He earned about $500 doing that. That was the last time he ever had to beg in his life.”
Purchasing hundreds of packets of instant noodles and instant miso soup, as well as a few cartons of cigarettes, Shovenko loaded his small boat and sailed back to Paltusovo. As he sailed to his cabin he discovered dozens of squatters living there.
“He had to call the police to get them out,” Shovenko recalled, “but once the police arrived they drove those people out. After all, he had all the paperwork showing that he was the owner of the cabin.”
It was quite the strange transformation for the onetime communist. He now found himself the ‘heartless landowner’ driving poor families into the street on a cold winter night.
“By chance he saw the soldier from the beach with the other military policemen,” Shovenko added, “and he joked with him and offered all the soldiers a pack of American cigarettes each. After that he wielded more power in Paltusovo than the local head of the KGB.”
Although the elder Shovenko was the first, he would not be the last. By the following summer, as the UIS was boating in thousands more, the floodgates to Shari and Nemuro in Hokkaido were kicked opened. The tiny island of Kunashir was ill equipped to fulfill Zhirinovsky’s dream of a Gaza on the Orient and most of the local authorities not only ignored the defections, but actually encouraged them. By mid-1995 it was estimated that over 50,000 Russian political refugees were living in Hokkaido.
“The Japanese really hated it,” Shovenko said with a laugh, “I love Japan and the Japanese, but damn it they are a stubborn bunch. They are terrified that somehow their country of one hundred and twenty five million is about to be overrun because there are about 200,000 Russians living there. But I suppose we had it better than the Koreans and the Filipinos living in Japan. I guess the Russians are more of a novelty item to them.”
Shovenko even believes it is for this reason that his younger brother Yuri chose not to return to Paltusovo and remains in Japan.
“He is an actor,” Shovenko said, “he does commercials and stars on sitcoms, usually playing of all things an American. He loves Tokyo and dreams about going to Hollywood someday. His dream is to someday meet Ice Cube.”
Igor Shovenko decided to return to Paltusovo to help his father run his business after he finished high school. What he saw shocked him.
“That tiny cabin my father built was now a supermarket,” Shovenko said, “And the little backwater village now looked like a real town. It had a school and a post office and even a discothèque. I couldn’t believe it changed so much in ten years.”
As relations between Japan and the UIS began to thaw after the fall of Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 2003 tourism soon became the major source of income in Paltusovo.
“You know we are so lucky that Zhirinovsky couldn’t crowd this island like he wanted,” Shovenko added, “because there are some really beautiful places here. The natural landscape here is really amazing, and it drives tourism.”
The changes in Kunashir even affected the political landscape. The island which just twelve years ago was a virtual political prison for communists now finds itself as the most right wing province of the Sakhalin Oblast.
“The Communists sent to Sakhalin thought they were the lucky ones in 1994,” Shovenko added, “but they didn’t have Japan nearby. So they still live life like we did back in 1994. But here we are strengthening ties to the west. In the elections of 1996 while Sakhalin voted overwhelmingly for the communists we supported the reformist parties. Even the Kunashiri Unity Front garnered more support than the Communist Party, and they are a political party advocating union with Japan!”
Still, the support for the Kunashiri Unity Front in 1996 may have had more to do with the one man who is still despised above all others in Paltusovo.
“I suppose that the success of the Kunashiri Unity Front had more to do with Vladimir Zhirinovsky that a serious desire to unify with Japan,” Shovenko said, “we all hate him here, and in 1996 nobody in Kunashir took the Worker’s Party seriously. Zhirinovsky turned it into a watered down Liberal Democratic Party, and we all resented those communists who didn’t get exiled. We considered them traitors. But we still wanted to vote against Vladimir Zhirinovsky. What better way to vote against Vladimir Zhirinovsky than to turn his grand plan for a Greater Russia on its face? The thought of a bunch of Russians he personally exiled to Kunashir to prevent it from unifying with Japan voting to actually do just that was just too perfect for us to resist. We couldn’t ignore that perfect opportunity to tell Vladimir Zhirinovsky to kiss our ass.”
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Funny you should mention that because in a coming post we start to get an idea about how sports is playing out (no pun intended). You are right, a boycott of the Atlanta Olympics is hardly out of the question, and I think the England-Scotland-Wales-North Ireland factor will allow the UIS to send seperate teams to the international football matchups without too much political backlash. But you are right, a team Serbian Krajina would be a huge problem. But in the near future we will see what happens to two of OTL's most famous former Soviet athletes, and how they are getting by in TTL. Namely Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko.
I have been kicking that around, and I tend to agree. He does seem to have a much longer leash when dealing with Zhirinovsky, which could allow him to say some pretty colorful things in coming posts.
Just from curiosity, what with UIS national anthem and coat of arms?
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From the prelude we know about UIS 2011 UIS interventon in Georgia. However, I think it wasn't mentioned that Georgia is still UIS Republic or it was only border clash about Osetia or Abkhazia.
About other republics, it seems that UIS in 2012 is composed by Russia, Bellarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbian Kraina and Kazakhstan. All have Russian/Slavic majority.
We know Azerbaijan was kicked out by Lebed in 2004 and Armenia leave UIS in 2005.Also Russians retreats from Tajikistan after fall of Zhirinovsky.
The question is, what about rest of Central Asian republics, However we can see Lebed is willing to leave trublemaking non Russian, or non Slavic republics. So it is possible they will follow suit and being abadoned by Moscow after many years of costfull pacifications in name of turn UIS into country composed mostly by Slavs with solid Russian majority. However it wasnt yet mentioned.
BTW, we yet far from it, but I think that see this TL continuing after 2003 will be nice
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